Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are all those actions, also technical ones, helping a website to reach the top of Google search results. Traditionally, SEO is divided into in-page actions (operations done on the website pages) and off-page actions (operations done in every other online place).

What means Social Media Optimization (SMO)?

We can define it as the process, made by integrated actions, of increasing the awareness of a product or brand by using social platforms and their communities to generate visibility.

You can guess SEO as a person throwing a stone into a pond, with the propagation of circular waves.

At the same time, we can try to guess Social Media Optimization as several people, each one in a different part of the pond, throwing a stone. We can suppose that the whole pond will be covered by waves.

As an online content creator, I believe that social media content optimization is the future (it is already the present!). It is the basis on which build the social media strategy of a brand.

Facebook is social network that facilitate communications among people and that can help brand in creating new relationship but, as Brian Solis in his great article wrote, they did not learn yet that relationships must be conquered and deserved.

How? Creating relevant content. It seems something ordinal, but I remember Amir Kassaei telling us “Create relevance, not awareness”, during last Creativity Festival of Cannes Lions.

Content must give to people a real added value because the creation of a community itself is based on the reciprocal values exchange. People is not on Facebook waiting for marketing interruptions.

People is on Facebook and on the other social platforms to find something interesting for free.

So, that’s the reason why I like to say that brands have to create “sharable assets”.

I wrote about sharable assets last summer in a post about the Cannes Lions Festival: Simplicity, Humanity and Sharable Assets win over all. Creating sharable assets means that you are strategically planning to turn each of your fans into hubs of your influence. Like the waves we wrote above.

So, linking to the title of this article – Social Media Optimization -, many brands and professionals don’t have a good social presence, yet. Are we sure that invest money in technical SEO worth it, if brands don’t care about strategically creating content?

Definitely, this is the era of valuable and sharable content.

As Creative, this means that Creativity wins and brands will need always it for attracting on their website people really interested in their products.

A plenty of fans is useless if you don’t have relevant content to share with them (to share is a beautiful verb that make us think that people and brands are really on the same level).

Be relevant. Because relevance is related to “what you get or what you give” and that must be the question you ask to yourself every time to share something with your community. (That was the title of a great seminar I attended during the Advertising Week in New York. This will be the title of one of my next article.There is so much to write about!)

Whynotter, Creative and Cultural planner. Blogger and Social Media lover. A mad Dreamer loving Advertising, Fashion, Design and Art. Founder of Very Creative People. Co-founder of Whynotter. Born in Italy, World Citizen. Crazily in love with NYC.